A taxing problem

摘要

ONE reason why the American equity market has rallied since the election of Donald Trump is the hope that taxes on corporate profits will be cut. But that measure has to be paid for, and analysts are only just starting to figure out where the burden might fall. The initial focus has been on the idea of border-adjustment taxes. But another way of raising revenue is to remove companies' right to deduct their interest expenses from their taxable income. That proviso has been in place since 1918, when it was introduced to help firms struggling with the impact of the first world war-evidence that tax breaks, once granted, are hard to remove.